Hi Bonnie, welcome to the list. >Are Scottish and Irish traditions likely to be the same? It's hard to generalize. Things are different at the south end of Ireland from the north and ditto for east and west. The music is different, traditions too! Scotland as well. Scotland has undergone a lot of homogenization in the last few hundred years. It was originally formed by 4 different peoples: The gaelic Scots (from Ulster), the Vikings -- still prominant in the north and west, the indiginous Picts, and the "Angles" (tribes of Germans who settled in the Lothians). Oh, and lets not forget the Welsh who moved to Galloway. So things are different in the highlands than the lowlands. At least!! However that said, I was amazed when reading "Passing the time in Ballymenone", a town in the North of Ireland, how much things were like my Scottish grandmas -- right down to how you placed the furniture in the room and what you had on your shelves for display. I think the 'folk culture' is very similar -- perhaps!! (Grandma's family were lowlanders from Polmont in the heart of Scotland). >Are the Ulster Scots likely to have kept their Scottish traditions, >especially since they are often associated with religion? Did they keep to >themselves, or would they have adopted the 'ways' of the folks around them? Another debate here -- The people who left Scotland to move to Ulster in the 1600s were the most enterprising, Ferenghi like Scots. They were willingly leaving a place with few opportunities for the wild west of its day. Those who didn't bring wives had to marry and many married Irish women. This was particularly true of the men in the McDonald army who conquored Antrim in the 1500s. They had no women at all. And who is it that sits at the fire all day telling the children stories? Cooking food and passing on their recipes? Women! Some blending has definitely occured. >I have one Ulster Scots ancestor, William Howard BURNS, born in Belfast >1766, and other supposedly Scottish families: >REED, SANKEY, ALEXANDER, MORRISON (maybe Scottish or maybe Irish?) Would >these be lowlander Scots rather than highlander? No 'Mc's' anywhere. Probably, but Highland families in Scotland often adopted lowland surnames wh en they moved. THere was a lot of dislike of them. They'd be as welcome in Edinburgh in a kilt and with a Mc name as an Indian in a loincloth in Andrew Jackson's Washington DC!! That changed of course. It was very easy to move a little ways and change your name and take up a new identity. There is some evidence too that if you changed religion the clergy might record the baptisms and marriages in the 'right style' so an Irish surname might get the O' circumcized and a Mc attached, etc. I know a pro- fessional genealogist whose family 'switched' identities at least 4 times in Ireland that he's been able to trace by doing this. His were gentry so there were records. Ours were po' people -- no records, so it was a LOT easier to put your past behind you. >Also, my father's grandparents (Chester Burns REED and Annette Tryphene >GOODSON) were called "Danny" and "Bonnie" supposedly Scottish nicknames for >grandfather and grandfather. >Anyone heard of these names used as such? >(I am named for that 'Bonnie') Sure. But since you can see Ireland from Scotland, anything in the one place is likely to be in the other. Not totally true, but is always good to remember. I recall reading a scholarly book about the Irish banshee and how the Scots had none, based on Ulster Scots in Ireland. Yet if you read any book of Scottish folktales there are plenty of banshees. I regret not being able to flunk the author in some course.....any course, for bad scholarship. Linda Mer ________________________________________________________________ Sent via the WebMail system at mail.fea.net